Inclusive Economics: Enabling the World

The societies and nations of today are driven mainly by their economic process. The world is going through a transition where the era of ideologies and political systems are becoming redundant. In the next two decades, the economic leadership is poised to play a far more important role in the world than the political and the military leadership. Hence, we are presented with a great opportunity for large-scale change. So when economics are beginning to play such a big role, and the economic engine is driving the very fundamentals of the world, it is very important that the leaders who handle the economic process rise above ethnic, religious and national identities as the economic process can no longer be contained within any kind of identity or boundary.

In the last decade, I have been a speaker at various economic and business forums including the World Economic Forum at Davos. In the initial phase, the question was always, "What is a mystic's role in a business meeting?" This is a serious flaw -- the way we are conducting life on this planet. We have divided the world into first world, second world, third world, religious world, corporate world, etc. Every activity that we do is essentially aimed towards the wellbeing of all life, but in the process of conducting this activity, we start working against each other. I had to take pains to explain during these various forums that, irrespective of what the nature of their immediate business may be, in reality there is only one business -- the business of human wellbeing. That's everybody's business and that is my business, too. Whatever one is manufacturing, whether one is making a safety pin or a computer or a spacecraft, all this is only to serve the interest of human wellbeing; it is just the scale and scope that is different. For one person, human wellbeing means one's own wellbeing. For another person, it includes one's family; for another, it includes one's community, nation or race. For another, it includes everyone and everything on the planet.

So I am striving to include all those involved in driving the economic engine into a spiritual process as spirituality is fundamentally a process of inclusiveness. Over 80% of the world's economy is controlled by less than 2,500 people. If even a 10% change happens in their hearts, the world will change. The world is hungry not because there is no food; there is more than enough food to feed the six to seven billion people on the planet. It is just that those who need it are not getting it because, one way or the other, those who have the power and the means have not cared enough to do something about it.

One basic aspect of the spiritual process is that it makes one into an all-inclusive human being. It is the exclusiveness of the rich that has rendered the world unjust and inhuman. The essential aspect of the spiritual process is to raise one beyond these physical and individual identifications and into a state of all-inclusive oneness. The spiritual process need not be taught as a philosophy or a belief system; what we refer to as spirituality is just a technology for inner wellbeing -- it can be imparted as simple methods which will naturally lead to a more inclusive way of experiencing life.

What we call "Inclusive Economics" is empowering the whole of humanity to participate in a robust and all-inclusive economic process. For example, providing good health care and quality education for the underprivileged or disadvantaged populations is not charity but an investment; it creates quality human resources and expands markets, furthering the reach and scope of the economic engine. This does not mean going back to failed systems like communism or socialism, but administering and driving the economic engine in a gentler and compassionate way that will lead to including every human being on the planet into the economic process; leaving more than 50% of the population out of an active involvement in the economic process does not make good business sense. For this process to sustain itself, it is imperative that it be driven not by personal ambition, but by vision. It is extremely important that individuals in key leadership positions who shape the life and future of humanity are firmly established in an inner experience of inclusiveness. So this has become my life, my work and my endeavor -- to develop methods to help people experience this inclusiveness.

When this sense of inclusiveness came into me, I suddenly realized that to be loving is not somebody's teaching, to be compassionate is not an idea, to be in empathy is not some esoteric principle, this is the way a human being is made. If only he does not constipate his consciousness with limited identifications, with that which he is not. For the first time, we are capable of addressing every human problem on this planet -- nourishment, health, education, ecology - you name it, we can address it. We have the necessary resources, capabilities and technology for the very first time, but whether we will do it or not simply depends on how inclusive our experience of life is. If you stand here and experience this planet as yourself, I don't have to tell you, "Take care of it." Every human being would do their best. In our lives, if we do not do what we cannot do, that is not a problem, but if we do not do what we can do, that is a disaster. And right now, what we can do compared to what we could do 100 years ago is so different, so incredibly different, but what's missing is an all-inclusive consciousness, an all-inclusive experience of life. If we truly have to create solutions that are relevant for all, an experience of absolute inclusiveness has to happen to humanity, particularly for the leadership. And this is possible.

--

Watch my interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum:

--

Sadhguru will post an article each week covering such topics as health and wellbeing, cultivating meaningful relationships, living joyfully, enhancing human consciousness and how to make this planet a better place to live.

Isha Foundation, founded by Sadhguru, implements several large-scale human service projects including Project GreenHands, which broke the Guinness Book of World Records for planting the most trees in a single day. For more information, visit www.ishafoundation.org